Venezuela Continues its Descent into Tyranny

Maduro responds to attempted drone assassination by further cracking down on opposition

Last Saturday, two drones carrying explosives exploded near Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro as he was speaking at a military parade. Maduro took over from Hugo Chavez upon his death in 2013 in order to continue Chavez's so-called "Bolivarian Revolution" in Venezuela. Since that time, Maduro has been consolidating his hold on power by sidelining or eliminating opposition (for more background, see a previous Resurgent article here). The "Revolution" has led to Venezuela's people starving and its once leading economy reduced to shatters (the inflation rate is expected to reach 1 million percent later this year).

Thus the assassination attempt on Maduro a few days ago. Maduro was quick to blame Colombia as well as a handful of Venezuelan opposition leaders, including Julio Borges and Juan Requesens. The country's Supreme Court has now ordered their arrest, and the legislature is planning to strip them of their legislative immunity so that they can be tried. Borges is living in exile in Colombia, but Requesens is in Venezuela and has already been arrested.

Borges and others have speculated that the attempted assassination was a ruse to provide Maduro an excuse to further cull his opposition. Whatever the real cause of the attack and whoever the real perpetrators are, it appears that Maduro and his allies wasted no time in blaming his opposition in order to further consolidate his hold on power.

It is difficult to imagine what the end game for Venezuela will be. How long can the country undergo its current humanitarian and economic crisis? The economy shrank 14% last year, 87% of the population is in poverty, there is unfathomable inflation, and oil revenue is at the lowest point in at least 40 years. By every measure, Venezuela is failing, and it is directly attributable to Chavez, Maduro, and their socialist Bolivarian Revolution.

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(Image: Youtube screen capture of Maduro speaking right before the drone attack)

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E.E. Bokbok

Aug 10, 2018

Meanwhile, check out the top news story from another socialist country, Holland. Terrible!

@E.E. Bokbok no that is not the definition of socialism! It's your definition! And all those countries you listed are not doing fine! They have immigration problems up the wazoza! England, Sweden, and others are reexamine their so called universal health care cuz it's too expensive and they have to ration care so folks are dying! If you think these places are so great and sociaism is the bees knees, then please go and immigrate to one of these countries!!!! Please!

WillYams

Aug 10, 2018

@E.E. Bokbok please update you definition of a "free market". "I don't think that word means what you think it means"

(* Here, "socialism" is used the way today's Republicans use it, which is, "a free market system that includes a social safety net, government-run health insurance, and high taxes on the wealthy").

Yes, Cuba and Venezuela aren't free markets, and normally you wouldn't call all of those other countries "socialist" but smearing is all the rage these days so there's no sense in fighting semantic battles...